Hi'almar's Death Song
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p. 26
Hilmar'S Death Song
Like The \"Vikarsblk" and "Hildibrand's Death Song," this essentially monologic lay belongs to a category which forms a masculine counterpart to the feminine retrospective poems of the Edda, such as "Helreith Brynhildar" and "Guthrnarhvt": at the point of death, or in the beyond, the speaker lets pass in review the events of his life. This conventional situation conditions a lyric-elegiac mood; which finds especially beautiful, if somewhat facile and not very original, expression in our poem. And inasmuch as there is stress laid on the melancholy "nevermore" of lovers beset by a tragic fate, rather than on deeds of valor, we may even speak of a quasi-Romanticism. Indeed, external reasons likewise point to thirteenth-century origin, when medieval influences made themselves felt in the upper levels of Northern society, and French romances and lais were being translated voluminously.
Two versions exist, both derived from one now lost--the one in a MS of the "Hervarar saga;" the other, both longer and better, in the "Orvar Odds saga," which accordingly has been rendered here. However, the lay does not fit organically into the latter saga.
Piecing together the accounts in both sagas, the story of Hilmar is as follows: Angantr, a ferocious Viking chief, makes a Yuletide vow that he will wed beautiful Ingibiorg, the daughter of King Yngvi at Uppsala in Sweden, or else die. But when he appears there, the princess rejects him in favor of Hilmar, right-hand man of the king, whom she loves. Thereupon Angantr challenges Hilmar to single combat, next summer, on the island of Samsey. There, Hilmar and his companion at arms, the redoubtable Orvar Odd (or Sti), encounter Angantr and his eleven berserker brothers. Hilmar slays Angantr, notwithstanding the latter's invincible sword Tyrfing, but is mortally wounded himself. Orvar Odd (or Sti), protected by a magic silk shirt, is the sole survivor.
p. 27
Sti said:
1
\"What ails thee, Hilmar?Thy hue is pale.
Great wounds, I ween,do weary thee;
thy helmet is hewn,thy hauberk eke:
at an end is now,atheling, thy life!"
Hilmar said:
2
\"Wounds have I sixteen,is slit my byrnie,
dim grows my sight,I see no longer:
to my heart did hew,venom-hardened,
Angantr's swordslashing sharply.
3
\"Shall fair ladiesnever learn that I,
from blows me shielding,backward turned me;
nor shall everIngibiorg taunt me,
in Sigtna1 sitting,that from sword-blows I fled.
4
\"Unwilling nowise,from women's converse,
from their sweet songsI with Soti fared,
hastened to jointhe host to eastward,
went the last time forthfrom friends so dear.
5
\"Led me the white-browedliege's daughter
to the outmost endof Agnafit.2
Is borne out thusthat back I would not
wend from this war:so the wise maid said.
6
\"From Ingibiorg--came ill-hap swiftly--
I fared forth, then,on fated day:
a lasting sorrowto the lady, this,
since not e'er aftereach other we'll see.
7
\"To have and to holdI had five manors;
on that land to livemisliked me, though.
Now, robbed of life,I lie here, spent,
by the sword wounded,on Sms-isle's shore.
p. 28
8
\"Take with thee, Soti--my wish it is--
my helm and hauberkto the hall of the king.
Will it wring the heartof the ruler's daughter
when shattered she seeswhat shielded my breast.
9
\"The red-gold ringfrom my right arm draw,
to Ingibiorg bring it,in her bower sitting.
Will yearn for methe young maiden,
since not e'er aftereach other we'll see.
10
\"I see sittingin Sigtna hall
the women who warned m wending thence.
Will not ever afterale nor warriors
Hilmar gladdenhere in this life.
11
\"Quaff with the kingthe crowd of housecarls
their ale gladlyin Uppsala;
doth the mead manymen overcome,
but me overmasterhere many wounds.
12
\"Flies from the Souththe famished raven,
flieth with himthe fallow eagle;
on the flesh of the fallenI shall feed them no more:
on my body bothwill batten now."
Next
Footnotes
p. 27
1 Between Uppsala and the present Stockholm.
2 This is a low flat point south of the present Stockholm.
p. 26
Hilmar'S Death Song
Like The \"Vikarsblk" and "Hildibrand's Death Song," this essentially monologic lay belongs to a category which forms a masculine counterpart to the feminine retrospective poems of the Edda, such as "Helreith Brynhildar" and "Guthrnarhvt": at the point of death, or in the beyond, the speaker lets pass in review the events of his life. This conventional situation conditions a lyric-elegiac mood; which finds especially beautiful, if somewhat facile and not very original, expression in our poem. And inasmuch as there is stress laid on the melancholy "nevermore" of lovers beset by a tragic fate, rather than on deeds of valor, we may even speak of a quasi-Romanticism. Indeed, external reasons likewise point to thirteenth-century origin, when medieval influences made themselves felt in the upper levels of Northern society, and French romances and lais were being translated voluminously.
Two versions exist, both derived from one now lost--the one in a MS of the "Hervarar saga;" the other, both longer and better, in the "Orvar Odds saga," which accordingly has been rendered here. However, the lay does not fit organically into the latter saga.
Piecing together the accounts in both sagas, the story of Hilmar is as follows: Angantr, a ferocious Viking chief, makes a Yuletide vow that he will wed beautiful Ingibiorg, the daughter of King Yngvi at Uppsala in Sweden, or else die. But when he appears there, the princess rejects him in favor of Hilmar, right-hand man of the king, whom she loves. Thereupon Angantr challenges Hilmar to single combat, next summer, on the island of Samsey. There, Hilmar and his companion at arms, the redoubtable Orvar Odd (or Sti), encounter Angantr and his eleven berserker brothers. Hilmar slays Angantr, notwithstanding the latter's invincible sword Tyrfing, but is mortally wounded himself. Orvar Odd (or Sti), protected by a magic silk shirt, is the sole survivor.
p. 27
Sti said:
1
\"What ails thee, Hilmar?Thy hue is pale.
Great wounds, I ween,do weary thee;
thy helmet is hewn,thy hauberk eke:
at an end is now,atheling, thy life!"
Hilmar said:
2
\"Wounds have I sixteen,is slit my byrnie,
dim grows my sight,I see no longer:
to my heart did hew,venom-hardened,
Angantr's swordslashing sharply.
3
\"Shall fair ladiesnever learn that I,
from blows me shielding,backward turned me;
nor shall everIngibiorg taunt me,
in Sigtna1 sitting,that from sword-blows I fled.
4
\"Unwilling nowise,from women's converse,
from their sweet songsI with Soti fared,
hastened to jointhe host to eastward,
went the last time forthfrom friends so dear.
5
\"Led me the white-browedliege's daughter
to the outmost endof Agnafit.2
Is borne out thusthat back I would not
wend from this war:so the wise maid said.
6
\"From Ingibiorg--came ill-hap swiftly--
I fared forth, then,on fated day:
a lasting sorrowto the lady, this,
since not e'er aftereach other we'll see.
7
\"To have and to holdI had five manors;
on that land to livemisliked me, though.
Now, robbed of life,I lie here, spent,
by the sword wounded,on Sms-isle's shore.
p. 28
8
\"Take with thee, Soti--my wish it is--
my helm and hauberkto the hall of the king.
Will it wring the heartof the ruler's daughter
when shattered she seeswhat shielded my breast.
9
\"The red-gold ringfrom my right arm draw,
to Ingibiorg bring it,in her bower sitting.
Will yearn for methe young maiden,
since not e'er aftereach other we'll see.
10
\"I see sittingin Sigtna hall
the women who warned m wending thence.
Will not ever afterale nor warriors
Hilmar gladdenhere in this life.
11
\"Quaff with the kingthe crowd of housecarls
their ale gladlyin Uppsala;
doth the mead manymen overcome,
but me overmasterhere many wounds.
12
\"Flies from the Souththe famished raven,
flieth with himthe fallow eagle;
on the flesh of the fallenI shall feed them no more:
on my body bothwill batten now."
Next
Footnotes
p. 27
1 Between Uppsala and the present Stockholm.
2 This is a low flat point south of the present Stockholm.
